How to Enable Windows Auto Login without a Password

A user must enter a password for a local or Microsoft (online) account each time they log on to Windows. This allows you to restrict access to your computer. In this article, we will look at how to disable the password prompt on the logon screen in Windows 10/11 and allow automatic login to the computer using specific user credentials. Auto-logon assumes that user credentials (username and password) are stored in the Windows registry and used for automatic login.

Disabling the Windows logon password does not mean that your account should have a blank password. Windows can use saved user credentials (name and password) to automatically logon to the computer. In all other cases, for example, when accessing from another computer over the network (SMB) or when connecting to a Remote Desktop (RDP), you will be prompted for a password.

How to Disable Login Password on Windows

On a standalone computer and in a workgroup environment, the easiest way to turn off the logon password prompt on the Windows sign-in screen is to use the User Accounts Control Panel.

1. Press Win+R and run the command netplwiz or control userpasswords2 ;
2. A list of local Windows accounts will appear. Uncheck the option “User must enter a username and password to use this computer” and save changes (OK);  
   Starting with Windows 10 20H1, the option “User must enter a username and password to use this computer”  is not shown by default if you use a local user account to sign-in Windows instead of a Microsoft cloud account (MSA). Create the DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion registry value with a value of 0 in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device key to display this check box.
   You can make changes to the registry using PowerShell:New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device" -Name DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion -Value 0 -Type Dword –ForceThis will disable the “Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts” option. Re-open the netplwiz console and make sure that the checkbox has appeared.
3. Enter the user name and password (twice) for the account you want to use to automatically log on to Windows;
4. Restart your computer and make sure that the Windows boots directly to the desktop without entering a password.
    The AutoLogonSID registry parameter in the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon key stores the user SID used to log on.

On computers that have been added to an Active Directory domain, you cannot turn off the “Require username and password” option because of the domain password policy. In this case, you can enable Windows autologin via the registry (see below).

Enable Windows Auto Login via the Registry

You can save a user password in the computer’s registry to allow Windows to log on automatically. This allows you to set up automatic logon without prompting for a password and to skip the Login Screen for your Microsoft account, domain account, or local account.

1. Press Win+R and type regedit;
2. Go to the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon;
3. Change the value of the registry parameter AutoAdminLogon from 0 to 1;
4. Create a new string parameter DefaultDomainName and specify the domain or a local computer name as its value;
   Tip. You can find out your current computer name using the  hostname command.
5. In the DefaultUserName parameter you need to specify the user account name you want to sign in with;
6. Specify the user account password in plain text in a string reg parameter DefaultPassword (create if missing);
7. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer;
8. When Windows boots, it should automatically log on using the saved user name and password, without prompting for user credentials on the logon screen.

You can enable Windows autologin via the registry using the following BAT script.  Replace root and P@ssword with your username and password, and replace WORKGROUP with the name of your AD domain (if the domain user account is used).

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v AutoAdminLogon /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v DefaultUserName /t REG_SZ /d root /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v DefaultPassword /t REG_SZ /d P@ssword /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v ForceAutoLogon /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v DefaultDomainName /t REG_SZ /d WORKGROUP /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v IgnoreShiftOverride /t REG_SZ /d 1 /f

Or you can run a PowerShell script to write the user’s logon credentials to the registry:

$Username ='max'
$Pass = 'Max$uperP@ss'
$RegistryPath = 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon'
Set-ItemProperty $RegistryPath 'AutoAdminLogon' -Value "1" -Type String
Set-ItemProperty $RegistryPath 'DefaultUsername' -Value $Username -type String
Set-ItemProperty $RegistryPath 'DefaultPassword' -Value $Pass -type String
Restart-Computer

The value of the DefaultUserName registry entry changes when a different user is logged on to the computer (it contains the name of the last logged in user). After this, the automatic Windows logon will no longer work.

Disable Password After Resuming from Sleep/Hibernation on Windows

Windows may require you to enter a password when your computer wakes from sleep or hibernation. This is called a Secondary Logon.

You can disable the password prompt after waking from sleep using the Windows Control Panel:

1. Go to Settings -> Accounts -> Sign-in options (or run the quick access URL command: ms-settings:signinoptions );
2. Change the value of the Require sign-in parameter from When PC wakes up from sleep to Never;
3. Then check that dynamic screen lock is disabled here: Allow Windows to automatically lock your device when you’re away;
4. Disable the ‘On resume, display logon screen’ option in Control Panel if the screen saver is configured on a computer: control desk.cpl,,@screensaver

You can disable the password when resuming from sleep with the commands:

powercfg /setacvalueindex scheme_current sub_none consolelock 0
powercfg /setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_none consolelock 0

You can disable the password prompt after waking from sleep/hibernation using GPO:

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor snap-in – gpedit.msc (on Home editions of Windows, you can run the local policy editor as follows);
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Power Management -> Sleep Settings;
3. Disable the GPO parameters “Require a password when a computer wakes (on battery)” and “Require a password when a computer wakes on battery (plugged in)”;
4. Now Windows won’t ask for a password when you wake your computer from sleep or hibernation.

Enable Auto Sign-in to Windows with the AutoLogon Tool

You can store the user password in encrypted form in the registry using the Autologon utility. This is a more secure way to automatically log on to Windows. The Autologon is available for download from the Microsoft website as part of the Sysinternals toolset (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autologon).

1. Download and run Autologon.exe (or autologon64.exe) as an administrator;
2. Accept the terms of the license agreement;
3. Specify the user account, domain, and password that will be used to automatically log on to Windows. Click the Enable button:

   Autologon successfully configured. The autologon password is encrypted.

4. An encrypted password is stored in LSA format under the HKLM\SECURITY\Policy\Secrets registry key. In this case, although the password is not stored in clear text, the encryption algorithm is not strong and technically any user with local admin permissions can decrypt it.

You can set user credentials to automatically log on to Windows using the Autologon command-line options. Use the following syntax to enable passwordless logon:

autologon64.exe USER_NAME DOMAIN PASSWORD /accepteula

We looked at how to disable the password login on Windows and automatically boot directly to the user’s desktop. Hold down the Shift key when Windows starts up if you want to temporarily disable automatic logon and manually select a user on the sign-in screen.

Automatic login to devices without a password is often used on devices operating in information kiosk mode. When such a device is booted up, Windows should automatically log on to the desktop and start the necessary programs via autorun.

It is not recommended to configure the automatic login to be for the built-in Windows Administrator account or for a user with local administrator permissions.